NCJ Number
202779
Date Published
May 2003
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This paper reviews reforms in provisions for child witnesses in the Western Australian (WA) criminal courts over the last decade.
Abstract
In 1992, following reports by the WA Child Sexual Abuse Task Force and the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia on the evidence provided by children and other vulnerable witnesses, the WA government introduced a wide-ranging package of legislative changes. These changes pertained to amendments to the Evidence Act and other acts in the areas of the corroboration of the evidence provided by certain classes of persons, including children; reception of the evidence of children; and removing the physical and emotional barriers to the giving of evidence by children. Legislative provisions in the latter area consist of the use of a support person seated near a child witness while he/she is giving evidence, the use of qualified persons to communicate with child witnesses who may have difficulty in understanding questions or framing answers, use of an intermediary in cross-examination by an unrepresented accused, admission of a child's statement made to another person, pre-recording of a child's statement, the use of closed-circuit television and screening arrangements, special witnesses, preliminary hearings, and the closure of courts in matters that affect child witnesses. These legislative changes have been supported by the creation of the Child Witness Service and its Reference Group, as well as the introduction of technology needed to implement legislative mandates for child witnesses. A study of the experience of child complainants in sexual abuse cases in the criminal justice systems of New South Wales, Queensland, and WA found that the child complainant's experiences in WA were significantly better than those in the other States surveyed. Recommendations for further reforms that would apply to child witnesses include prohibiting the calling of children under the age of 16 years to testify in person in domestic violence cases, the conferring of absolute confidentiality on the files and notes of agencies involved in the investigation of and therapeutic resolution of child abuse complaints in certain situations, consideration of the admissibility of expert evidence regarding certain aspects of child sexual abuse and the related responses of children, elimination of the need for a child victim to identify three or more individual acts of sexual abuse in such detail that they can be proved to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt, and consideration of alternatives to the adversarial process in cases that involve child victims/witnesses. A 21-item bibliography